<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>The Creature in the Woods by apfelgranate</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24717826">The Creature in the Woods</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/apfelgranate/pseuds/apfelgranate'>apfelgranate</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Feral Verse [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Family Feels, Gen, Illustrated, Teaching</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 01:01:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,601</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24717826</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/apfelgranate/pseuds/apfelgranate</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Dread Wolf wakes early, alone and near powerless. He runs and runs, until he runs right into a young vashoth woman who has been looking for someone to teach her magic. He intends to keep running, but she’s <i>persistent</i>.<br/>—<br/>Drabbles/short oneshots set in <a href="https://edda-grenade.tumblr.com/tagged/feral-verse/chrono">feral verse</a>.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adaar &amp; Adaar's Parents, Adaar &amp; Solas (Dragon Age), Adaar's Parents &amp; Solas (Dragon Age)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Feral Verse [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2237514</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>64</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Everything</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Chapters are ordered chronologically, that means on occasion I'll have to shuffle new chapters around depending on where they fit in the timeline. Tags will get updated as we go along.</p>
    </blockquote><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Adaar finds a strange elf in the woods.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The elf gave Adaar a look of sheer panic, then vaulted himself across a fallen tree. She gave chase, her heart hammering with exhilaration.</p><p>“Wait!” she shouted, “wait, I just want to ask you—”</p><p>They broke through underbrush, both of them heedless. When the resistance suddenly gave way, Adaar had a split second to regret the carelessness, ever so slightly, before both of them barreled headlong into a pond. The water splashed, drenching her. But she couldn’t care, <em>didn’t</em> care, because she had caught up to the elf. She grinned breathlessly.</p><p>“You’re a mage, right? Teach me!”</p><p>“What?” He scrambled backwards, churning up the mud of the pond’s bottom. “No?! Absolutely not!”</p><p>This was already going almost as badly as the Circle mage a few years ago. The woman had thought her a demon at first, and nearly broken a leg trying to get away. Undeterred, Adaar went on—she’d gotten a spell out of Lucille, too, despite their disastrous first meeting.</p><p>“I <em>saw</em> you use magic,” she insisted. “I promise I’m not trying to get you in trouble!” She summoned a little light between her dripping hands. “See? I can use it, too. I just want to learn.”</p><p>“No,” he said, voice wavering, “I cannot—”</p><p>She felt the water surge with cold, the crackle of magical energy, and suddenly he was gone, a smear of fog and ice crystals across the pond. At the far bank, she saw the shape of him fall into existence again, before disappearing again into the forest.</p><p>Her heart thundered in her chest.</p><p>Stars, she <em>had</em> to find a way so he’d teach her how to do that.</p><p>A few hours later, she managed to spot him again, near the cave where she had first seen him. He ducked behind a tree almost instantly, but she couldn’t hear the tell-tale sounds of escape through the woods, and neither did she feel the wave of cold that had accompanied his earlier disappearance.</p><p>Maybe a different tactic was in order.</p><p>“When’s the last time you’ve eaten?” she yelled to the forest at large. He <em>had</em> to be half-starved, he was so scrawny and ragged. And he didn’t have vallaslin, which meant he most likely had no clan to help him. “How about I bring you some food, and we can talk?”</p><p>To her surprise and delight, it actually worked—after a fashion. The next morning, he edged out from the foliage, eyeing the pack of salted meat and bread in her hands. She watched him scarf everything down at breakneck speed, then find his self-control just in time to offer her the last scrap of bread. She tried not to laugh.</p><p>“It’s fine, eat it.”</p><p>
  
</p><p>Slowly, he took it back and chewed it, watching her right back now, his expression guarded.</p><p>“Thank you,” he said afterwards, his voice scratchy. She had noticed it the day before, too, but now in this quiet unmoving moment it was all the more blatant. Worn-out like the rest of him.</p><p>“You’re welcome,” she said gently. “My name’s Adaar—well, my given name. I haven’t chosen my own yet. What’s yours?”</p><p>He stared at her.</p><p>“What? Did no one ever give you a name?” He looked away, mouth tight, and then he got up and stalked a few yards away, like the question was too abhorrent to even allow in his vicinity. The skin at the nape of Adaar’s neck prickled.</p><p>“Or just make one up,” she offered. “Choose anything you want. What do you want to be called?”</p><p>She watched his back and shoulders tighten, his ears tilting down from some terrible emotion.</p><p>“Solas,” he said after a long silence. “Call me that, if you must have a name for me.”</p><p>Adaar grinned, inordinately pleased.</p><p>“Teach me magic, Solas.”</p><p>There was that stare again, surprised and wounded. And then, his expression turned… wistful, almost.</p><p>“I… I am not suited for the task.”</p><p>“Bah, that’s nonsense. You can learn teaching, too. We can figure it out as we go along. Here, I’ll start: that disappearing thing you did, how does that work? Why is it so cold? Does the ice matter? Can you do it without, too?”</p><p>He disappeared. She felt the tug of the Veil, that shift of power. So the ice <em>wasn’t</em> essential—but still…</p><p>“See, that’s not very efficient teaching,” she called out. “Could have just told me I don’t need to throw frost everywhere to jump like that.”</p><p>“I am <em>not</em> teaching you,” came the tight-voiced reply from somewhere in the underbrush.</p><p>“Sure,” she said airily. “Same time tomorrow?”</p><p>Around her, the forest was silent except for the wind and the birds. Not a <em>yes</em>—not yet.</p><p>The day after, the idea for a new tactic had apparently occurred to Solas as well. He ignored the food and before she could even get the words out to ask again, he fixed her with a dark glare, his posture like an animal poised for flight—or for lashing out.</p><p>“Do you not know how to take <em>no</em> for an answer?”</p><p>Her cheeks and throat flushed hot. “Of course I do,” she snapped. “But magic’s different. You think people are lining up to teach someone like me magic? In ten years I managed to wrangle three people into it, and yes, I figured some out myself, but it’s still a drop in the ocean.”</p><p>That grim expression crumpled, and he turned away, pulling up the hood of his cloak. Hiding. Adaar grit her teeth and followed him.</p><p>“There is <em>no one else</em> to teach you?” he asked, like some terrible truth was finally dawning on him.</p><p>“No!”</p><p>“What of your—your parents? Magic runs in bloodlines for your people, does it not? Why are they unable to give you instruction?”</p><p>She blinked. For what people did magic run elsewhere?</p><p>“No,” she said again, slowly. “My tama—it’s not—they can’t.”</p><p>Solas stilled, although he didn’t turn around. “Why not?”</p><p>“Because it got poisoned for them,” she spat. “Believe me, I wish on every last star it was different. But there is <em>no one</em>, and I want to learn <em>everything</em>.”</p><p>He said nothing, silent and frozen. He didn’t look at her—but he also didn’t flee.</p><p>“I can get you more food,” she tried. “If you have nowhere to sleep, you can sleep with us. We can give you shelter.”</p><p>“You’re too generous.”</p><p>“I’m trying to bribe you.” She touched his ragged cloak, gave it a gentle tug. “But even if you won’t teach me, we’ve got enough to share. Then again, maybe some spiced meat will change your mind. It tastes amazing.”</p><p>He shivered visibly. Before she could decide whether that was a good or a bad sign, he faced her again, giving her an inscrutable look from beneath the hood of his cloak.</p><p>“Do you truly wish to learn everything about magic?”</p><p>Oh. <em>Oh</em>.</p><p>She tried not to smile too widely, and instantly gave up.</p><p>“<em>Yes</em>.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Teachers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Adaar's parents have some concerns.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p><p>Adaar’s parents were watching her with cautiously concerned expressions.</p><p>“Sunspot,” said her father.</p><p>“Adaar,” said her parent.</p><p>“Kiddo,” said her mother.</p><p>Oh dear.</p><p>“You know we love you and we trust you, right? But—are you <em>sure</em> that feral little forest man is the best choice as a teacher?”</p><p>Adaar crossed her arms and looked away, to where Solas had disappeared at the first opportunity. She tried not to sound as petulant as she felt.</p><p>“It’s not like I’ve got many other options, do I?”</p><p>“You’ve been making great strides on your own, though,” her mother pointed out.</p><p>“I’d be faster if I had someone to help me,” Adaar muttered.</p><p>“Well—”</p><p>“She’s right,” her parent interrupted them, voice hollow. “We can’t hope that we will run into another willing Keeper, or apostate of the Circle. She wants a teacher, and he seems willing enough.”</p><p>And without another word, they strode off, away from their home.</p><p>“Ari, wait,” Adaar’s father called after them, but they simply waved him off. Adaar bit her lip, eyes and cheeks stinging.</p><p>“Papa, I didn’t…”</p><p>“I know,” he said softly. “I’ll go after them. But—” he and her mother shared a look, and sighed— “they’re right. You know your own power best. Do what you think is right.”</p><p>Her mother caught him by the shoulder. “Let her do it. Okay, kiddo?”</p><p>Adaar nodded and darted after her parent. She couldn’t see them anymore amongst the trees, but old habit led her to the towering knotted oak the two of them had often climbed together. Once reached, she could see her parent’s limbs angled from a perch in a fork of the branches that was big enough to support them.</p><p>She climbed up into the tree and flopped herself down on her parent. Ari let out an <em>oof</em> and curled one arm around her shoulders, but remained silent otherwise. The oak creaked gently; the wind rustled its leaves.</p><p>“I didn’t mean it like that,” Adaar said quietly.</p><p>“Didn’t mean to tell the truth?”</p><p>“<em>That’s not—</em>I didn’t say it to make you feel bad, or guilty, or whatever awful thing you’re feeling now!” she snapped and pushed her forehead against Ari’s. “I just—I want to <em>learn</em>. I want to find out how much I can do. And you…”</p><p>You won’t—you <em>can’t</em> teach me.</p><p>Ari closed their eyes with a sigh. “I know.” Their voice came out ragged.</p><p>Adaar swallowed, watching the scars around their mouth shift with the words. Over the years, the marks had faded, but they were still plainly visible to anyone who was familiar with the pattern.</p><p>“I’m sorry, Tama.”</p><p>Her parent’s eyes blinked open, a sudden hard glint.</p><p>“Don’t be,” Ari said with quiet intensity. “I mean it, <em>don’t be</em>. You cannot—” their breath wavered, “—you cannot <em>imagine</em> how happy I am that you didn’t inherit this part of me.”</p><p>The lump in Adaar’s throat only grew.</p><p>“I’ll learn something small, and soft, and pretty,” she swore. “And if you ever want to, to use magic again, or learn more, I’ll teach it to you, I promise.”</p><p>Ari smiled and wrapped both thick arms around her and hugged her tight.</p><p>“Oh, Sunspot. You burn so bright sometimes.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Wounded</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Solas gets injured, and can't deal with it by himself.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Whatever she had given him to chew, it was potent. The world was painted brighter and softer than it had any right to be, considering the constant nightmare it was.</p><p>“How’s the pain?”</p><p>Solas’s tongue moved slowly.</p><p>“Trivial,” he muttered, “compared to everything else.”</p><p>The girl’s hands ceased their movement for a moment, then resumed. The needle pierced the skin of his thigh again. He shut his eyes, dizzy from the strange dissonance of it, the blood and the ache, the warm steady grip of her palm. How precise those big hands were, how gentle in spite of their claws.</p><p>“Are you hurt somewhere else?” she asked.</p><p>Everywhere.</p><p>“No,” he managed. Not in ways she could mend.</p><p>
  
</p><p>She breathed deeply as she worked; the movement of her belly pressed against his inner thigh where it lay thrown across her lap. The blunted sting of the needle again, the sure press of her fingertips into his bare thigh. He didn’t mean to ask, wanted no more entanglement with this strange remnant of Ghilan’nain’s creatures than he had already succumbed to.</p><p>But he did: “Where did you learn to do this?”</p><p>“My mother taught me. She was a physician in Par Vollen—I mean, she still is one. But she’s mostly stitched us up in recent years, instead of proper patients.”</p><p>Par Vollen. The Qun. Memories not his own surfaced, fragmented yet complete enough to paint an utterly distasteful picture. Another blight his actions had created.</p><p>“Hold still, I’m almost done—aaaalmost—there we go.”</p><p>She cleaned his thigh with boiled water, covered the sewn wound in a pungent paste, and wrapped it in bandages. Solas watched her through the fog of whatever she had fed him, fixating on the specks of dried blood that still clung to her knuckles. His blood. The creases in the skin between her knuckles. The glint of the needle as she held it into a conjured flame.</p><p>She patted his cheek, startling him from his unmoored thoughts.</p><p>“You really shouldn’t be alone out here, not like this,” she murmured.</p><p>“I will be fine.” He caught her wrist before she could pat him again—or, worse, he could sink into the touch.</p><p>“Thank you,” he said. “I <em>am</em> grateful for your help. But you should return to your family.”</p><p>“Yeah… no, I don’t think so. Your eyes are like, like <em>this</em>—” She mimicked an expanding circle with her fingers and chuckled. “Besides, I’m not risking losing my first proper teacher to wound fever of all things, <em>and</em> Mama would have my head if I left someone injured and drugged by themself.”</p><p>
  <em>Please leave.</em>
</p><p>He couldn’t say it.</p><p>“Adaar—” Her name still felt strange in his mouth. Every word he had borrowed and stolen and cobbled together from his slumbering dreams; none of it felt right leaving his lips. “I will teach you about another spirit. Will that convince you I am well enough to be allowed some peace and quiet?”</p><p>He knew it wouldn’t—once fed, her curiosity had never abated. She would question and demand, more and more, leaping from one subject to the next on half a word’s suggestion. She would lie, now, pretend to be content with scraps, then pester him until exhaustion took them both.</p><p>A toothy grin spread across her face.</p><p>Oh—he couldn’t wait for it.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Fire</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Adaar figures out how to literally throw fire, and Solas has some concerns.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Somewhat of a follow-up to the chapter "Wounded." and Tehenan shows up for the first time in "Teachers."</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Adaar had done good work with the stitches. How she had managed it, Tehenan wasn’t quite sure, considering the elf damn near flinched under every touch. It had only gotten worse when Adaar left to get more salve.</p>
<p>“So,” Tehenan said, in a probably fruitless attempt to distract him until her daughter returned, “how is the teaching going? Is she driving you up the wall already?”</p>
<p>He let out a strangled noise, like a half-swallowed chuckle.</p>
<p>“She is… a river bursting its banks.”</p>
<p>Tehenan eyed him sidelong. “And what does that <em>mean</em>?”</p>
<p>The elf’s cheeks darkened. “She is reckless,” he said, “and she learns quickly.”</p>
<p>She considered that for a moment. “I take it you’re not the one who taught her how to breathe fire, then?”</p>
<p>Solas stared at her.</p>
<p>“…I’m sorry, she did <em>what</em>?”</p>
<p>“Hold still, I’m not done removing the thread.” Tehenan clamped one hand around his thigh to stop him from moving. “Breathed fire. Or at least that’s what it looked like. Maybe she just set the air in front of her on fire? You’d probably be able to tell.”</p>
<p>“It is dangerous either way,” he said sharply, his entire body tense like a coiled spring. “To compromise her lungs with such… showmanship.”</p>
<p>“You’ve <em>met</em> my daughter, right?” Tehenan gently tugged the last piece of thread from his flesh. “You really expect a woman called <em>fire-thrower</em> not to act like a dragon when she has the opportunity to do so?”</p>
<p>“I… was under the impression <em>Adaar</em> refers to a cannon.”</p>
<p>“It does. But translated literally, it means <em>fire-thrower</em>.” She smiled, remembering the tiny sparks Adaar had spat when her magic had first manifested. “Almost prophetic, huh.”</p>
<p>Solas drew his legs up tight against his torso as soon as she let him go, watching her over his bony knees with the flinty stare of a cautious animal.</p>
<p>“Why did you call her that?” he asked, voice low. It didn’t sound accusatory, exactly, but she couldn't quite tell with him. Tehenan shrugged. “When she was little, she had this habit of launching herself at us—I’d be carrying her, like this, and she’d brace her feet on my hip and just throw herself at Ari, like a flailing chubby cannonball.”</p>
<p>“Lies and slander!” Adaar dropped into a crouch next to them. Like Ari, she could move so much more quietly than one expected, and Tehenan grasped at her chest in only half-theatrical shock.</p>
<p>“Kid! Don’t startle your dear old mother like this.”</p>
<p>Adaar laughed and knocked her forehead against Tehenan’s shoulder, then turned to Solas, who was watching them with wide eyes. She presented the tin of salve. </p>
<p>“Here you go. And don’t listen to her, I was a highly precise cannonball. I have never <em>flailed</em> in my entire life.”</p>
<p>“Should I tell him the story about the pear tree? Because I remember a distinct amount of flailing in that one—”</p>
<p>“Mama! I don’t go around telling everyone about the time you splattered that deer’s gallbladder everywhere, do I?”</p>
<p>“How do you even remember that, you were <em>four—</em>”</p>
<p>“Did you breathe fire?” Solas’s voice was sharp, edged with something more than anger.</p>
<p>Adaar pouted at her. “That was supposed to be a surprise.”</p>
<p>“Sorry, kiddo,” Tehenan said and gave her an apologetic pat on the shoulder. “But it <em>was</em> surprising; you should have seen his face.”</p>
<p>“Well, now I missed it—”</p>
<p>“<em>Adaar</em>.”</p>
<p>Solas’s attention had shifted entirely, Tehenan noted. Her daughter’s did, too. The two of them rose, their focus locked on each other.</p>
<p>Tehenan sat back and began to collect her medical supplies, keeping an eye on them, absorbed in their discussion. People always revealed so much more when their attention was focused on anything other than hiding. Not that Adaar had ever learned, or needed to learn, how to conceal her thoughts—sometimes Tehenan wondered if they’d chosen the right path there, in raising her—but Solas was a tightly-locked box at the best of times. Except, it seemed, when faced with Adaar’s magic.</p>
<p>“It carries <em>risk</em>,” he said. “The air you breathe connects to your mouth and nose, your throat and lungs. If you lose control, or miscalculate, you put all of that in danger—”</p>
<p>“So fire is where you draw the line? I can throw lightning and displace my body with the Fade but spewing fire is <em>too dangerous</em>?”</p>
<p>“That is not my point, you <em>know</em> that. It never was.”</p>
<p>“Then what is? Are you seriously mad I figured something out without your help?”</p>
<p>“Of course not! I am simply—”</p>
<p>It was new to him. He wasn’t sure how she did it. And that seemed to frighten him…</p>
<p>“Why don’t you demonstrate?” Tehenan suggested. Adaar brightened instantly, while Solas looked even more conflicted. Adaar grabbed him by the wrist, Tehenan picked up her supplies, making sure the salve tin stayed with Solas's things, and together they trudged down to the river.</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>“She really hasn’t set anything on fire so far,” Tehenan said. “Just a bit of singed hair.”</p>
<p>“Amazing vote of confidence,” Adaar muttered, but she met Tehenan’s smile with one of her own, sparks already drifting from her mouth. Solas remained silent, all the way through Adaar rolling up her trousers and wading into the river, rubbing her hands together until even Tehenan could feel the way her magic changed the air.</p>
<p>“Be careful,” Solas called out finally, voice tight.</p>
<p>“Always am,” Adaar replied.</p>
<p>“Liar,” Tehenan said, and laughed when her daughter stuck out her tongue in response.</p>
<p>Adaar cupped her hands together in front of her face, as though she were about to drink, inhaled through her nose, chest and belly expanding with it, and exhaled.</p>
<p>It was even more impressive than the first time. A great plume of fire streamed from her mouth and cupped hands, flames dancing through the air. The river’s surface shone red and gold in reflection; a gentle wave of heat passed over them. As the fire faded, Adaar looked to them, eyes bright and her mouth split in a wide grin, a small tongue of flame licking out from between her lips. She was practically glowing.</p>
<p>Tehenan shivered, but her chest filled with warmth at the sight. Stars, whatever mistakes she and Reth and Ari had made along the way, they’d gotten this much right, at least.</p>
<p>She glanced down to catch Solas’s expression.</p>
<p>It wasn’t fear. But it was… familiar. She wracked her brain, trying to remember <em>why—</em>until it clicked. Ari. In Rivain. The market, the seer woman, practicing magic in plain sight and honored for it.</p>
<p>It was longing, for something you hadn’t even realized could exist until you laid eyes on it.</p>
<p>“Come on, don’t leave me in suspense,” Adaar called. “What do you think?”</p>
<p>“It’s <em>beautiful</em>, Sunspot,” Tehenan yelled. “Are you sure you don’t want <em>Ataashi</em> as your chosen name?”</p>
<p>“I’m thinking about it!”</p>
<p>Solas waded into the river, his steps hurried.</p>
<p>“Show me again,” he told Adaar, that same strange edge to his voice. Not anger, nor fear—but some desperate longing. “Explain it to me. Break it down into the smallest parts possible, that you may make use of them in other ways.”</p>
<p>“Uh, that’s gonna take a while, probably?”</p>
<p>“I don’t mind.”</p>
<p>Adaar glanced at Tehenan, a question in her eyes. Tehenan gave a dismissive wave.</p>
<p>“We’ll be fine, just come back before dark. And take care that his wounds don’t get wet, alright?”</p>
<p>“I will! If all else fails, I’ll just carry him.”</p>
<p>“You will do no such thing,” Solas said stiffly, but he did wrap the dry edges of his cloak around his thigh.</p>
<p>Tehenan chuckled and left them to it, relief softly settling into her bones. Her daughter’s excitement over the past weeks that only seemed to grow with each passing day—it would keep growing. She had someone to teach her, someone who could understand the intricacies of magic in ways none of her parents could. Koslun only knew what hole Solas had crawled out of or what strange cause drove him—but judging by what Tehenan had seen today, for now at least, he would <em>stay</em>.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading! I've got a dragon age-specific <a href="https://notenoughdragons.tumblr.com/">side blog</a> on tumblr, feel free to drop me an ask about this fic or talk about dragon age in general, and please leave a comment if you can, it fuels the writerly forge :D</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>